Basketball for a cause, with a heart by Darren Cooper of The Record
LITTLE FALLS – Coaches vs. Cancer isn’t a slogan for Jim Ring and Kevin Bianco.
They’ve lived it.
Friday night, their paths intersected once more as Ring’s event kicked off its ninth year with two boys basketball games at Passaic Valley. There will be games at Passaic Valley and Fort Lee on Saturday and more games at Passaic Valley on Sunday all under the Coaches vs. Cancer banner.
It’s easy to get confused and not focus on any one individual charity-based high school event in North Jersey. There are so many, and every season. But it’s a testament to the virtues still infused in the North Jersey athletics community by the coaches and administrators. They want the kids to care and see that there is a bigger world outside of sports. They are lucky to be healthy and active. These type of events do make impacts and aren’t forgotten by those touched.
That’s where Bianco comes in. The North Bergen head basketball coach was the beneficiary of the funds raised by the games seven years ago. He had been diagnosed with leukemia.
Back then, Ring said the whole thing was a little less formal. He raised the money and handed over a check.
“I told Kevin and his mom and dad, ‘We are giving you this and you can do whatever you want with it,’” said Ring. “Knowing what I went through with my wife, and my mother and my mother-in-law, there are certain things that insurance doesn’t cover. I said, ‘Kevin, you want to take that and go down to Atlantic City if you want, you deserve it, go do it.’”
“He came to see me in the hospital and told me they were putting this together,” said Bianco. “I honestly thought I would be there [that night] but things took the course that they did.”
Bianco was there Friday and his team improved to 13-1 this season with a 49-45 win over Ramapo in the first game. After the game, Bianco said that now, he needs to get his blood checked just once a year – “the faster I get out of there the better,” he joked.
He said he’s forgotten exactly where the money went, probably for basketball equipment for his program, but he’s forever grateful.
“This is a very good cause,” said Bianco. “It means a lot. It meant a lot to me.”
Ring, the former Kennedy coach who is an assistant at Ramapo, can chuckle now about his own personal circumstances. He’s free and clear of the prostate cancer that hit him. His wife, Jean, is a breast cancer survivor.
“I was asking her today, ‘How many years has it been?’ And she said she was first diagnosed in November 2000,” said Ring. “I said, ‘Wow, time goes by when you’re having fun.’”
Over the years, Ring, has broadened the event’s reach. Funds are also raised during a Christmas tournament, and the revival of the Bergen/Passaic Senior All-Star game. Four years ago through a connection at Hackensack University Medical Center he got connected to the national Coaches vs. Cancer organization, which oversees the donations.
All four schools playing Friday night had some kind of cancer connection. Last week, Westwood hosted its annual Cardinals vs. Cancer event, raising money for freshman Natalie Lopack who has been diagnosed with osteosarcoma.
The Passaic Valley school community has been rallying around sophomore lacrosse player Anthony Englehardt, who is undergoing treatment for Stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Westwood won the second game of the night, 69-59 over Passaic Valley. Junior guard Colin Liddy made five threes and four free throws down the stretch and the Cardinals led from start to finish.
Ring said he’s already planning something special for the event’s 10th anniversary next year. Saturday, there will be a girls basketball game, and Ring said he knows just as many girls basketball coaches and boys, so why not look to add some more games?
“I’ve never met anybody who would turn anything down,” Ring said.
These events will continue as a reminder that maladies can hurt us all, and show all the different ways we can help one another.